


First Swings

by Caraidean



Series: More Than Technique [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: F/M, Platonic (for now)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 14:26:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13366623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caraidean/pseuds/Caraidean
Summary: A bored Mia talks an early rising Ike into sparring at dawn for the first time, sparking off a long tradition and letting the two get to know each other.





	First Swings

“Well, if you can think of something better to do with our time, I’d like to hear it.” Mia pointed out as she finished her stretches. Her training sword, battered from a near decade of use, was propped up against one of the masts of Nasir’s ship as she rolled her shoulders back one more time. She sprang to her feet and practically skipped the few paces to where it rested, picking the wooden blade up and knocking it against the mast a few times with flicks of her wrist. “Come on, Boss. I’m sure you’ve seen the rest of this ship a dozen times over!”

“The sun’s not even up yet, Mia.” Ike pointed out, blunt but not unkind. The waves rocked the ship a little more, as the first few rays started to peak over the horizon. “It’s not really passing the time if most people aren’t awake yet.”

“Yeah, well,” Mia said lamely, shoulders sagging. Eventually she perked up a little, slapping a fist into the palm of her hand with a grin. “We can’t spar up here later, there’ll be too many sailors trying to do their jobs! This is the only chance we’re gonna get!”

“I can’t argue with that.” Ike agreed, grabbing his own training sword from the bench he’d been sitting on. His original intention had been to just pass the morning alone watching the sun rise, woken far too early by recent, painful memories. In hindsight, maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised to find the swordswoman up here. It shamed him to admit it, but given everything that had happened he hadn’t had much of a chance to get to know the woman - save for a brief conversation the day before heading out from Gallia back to Crimea.

He knew she was excitable, and dedicated - possibly too dedicated - to learning how to fight. He’d seen her work on the battlefield, both when they first met in a flurry of violence and quickly exchanged explanations, and during the flight to deeper within Gallia. He knew she’d more than held her own when helping keep the Daein soldiers at bay within the castle, and had proven instrumental when clearing the prison - Boyd had raised the alarm by accident, and if it weren’t for Mia’s quick swordsmanship the guards may have executed Kieran and Brom far before the rest of them could have gotten there.

Beyond that? Nothing. All he had to work with was her basic personality, and her skills. He could see a few similarities between the two of them, but only on the surface. Their styles were different for a start - Mia’s was more diligent and refined, all fast strokes and feints, substituting raw power to be in almost five places at once. His father had trained him well, but certainly not in that style - his was powerful strokes, careful footwork setting up stances for multiple rapid, strong blows.

That was almost like their personalities, he reckoned - while they were both fairly simple and to the point, Mia tended to dance around, words leaping from her tongue into the conversation with an energy he’d only ever seen a few times in Mist. He favored barging through the conversations, getting to the core of it in an instant, not picking away at it piece by piece.

“Are we going to fight or not?” Mia asked, tapping her trainer against the floor a few times. Ike snapped out of his reverie and nodded, setting back into his father’s stance silently. “Okay, Boss. Here I come!"

She moved like she had on the battlefield - no pausing to take him lightly here. The two understood each other, at least when it came to the fight. There’d be no holding back between them, no worry about bruising each other’s pride. Ike found himself forced back under the opening exchange, the sheer speed and number of the strikes catching him off guard even with what he knew about her, barely managing to keep her at bay. Soon, however, he saw an opening - her excitement and energy getting the better of her, stepping out of her refined stance to start delivering more wild blows, arcing in long swipes with her strength behind them.

She’d changed to fighting Ike’s kind of style instead, and that would be her undoing. On a rising slash Ike countered not with a block, but a slash of his own - overpowering the myrmidon and slapping her blade down and to the side, making Mia wince as the muscles in her sword arm complained. She tried to jump back, evading Ike’s reversal, but failed - his sword catching her in the ribs, winding her as she was knocked to the floor.

"Ow.” She mumbled, lying on her back and staring at the sky. For a second Ike was worried he’d misjudged - that the woman’s pride _was_ going to be injured - and opened his mouth, an apology on his lips before suddenly the purple-haired woman let out an excited laugh. “That was _**awesome**_!”

“Excuse me?” Ike asked, but Mia had already jumped back to her feet. Her shoulder ached a little, and she knew she’d have to ask Rhys to look at it later - it felt like she’d strained something on one of her strings, an over-extension or similar - but that was barely going to stop her.

“Are you kidding? That was the first decent fight I’ve had in months!” Mia said, voice completely sincere as she raised her sword once more - settling back into yet another stance, beaming. “Come on, Boss! Let’s go again!”

“I guess we can do best of three.” Ike agreed, still slightly bemused - but smiling as well now. The entire exchange had been over in under two minutes, the blitz that Mia had opened with making it feel longer than it had been. As they locked blades again, Ike realized she was changing it up - gone was the opening blitz he’d seen her use on so many others before him, replaced with more careful strikes and strokes, feet sliding back along the deck after every blow to pull her out of his range.

“Are you taking me seriously now?” Ike raised an eyebrow, Mia shrugging.

“Kinda? I don’t really use these stances much.” She admitted, and now that she had Ike could see it. Hesitation, furrowed concentration on her face as she kept correcting her footwork, and most importantly her blows were weaker and slower - too worried about getting the stance right to commit to any one attack properly.

“I can see that.” Ike replied, and then he moved - pushing through. Like he’d thought, Mia’s hesitation was her downfall, and his blade bounced off her collarbone - making the myrmidon let out a slight groan of frustration.

“Best of five.” She offered, firm and determined but with light dancing in her eyes, and Ike agreed. This was longer, the two used to each other now - even when the ship rocked due to the ocean’s wave it only bought Ike a few seconds advantage before Mia managed to squirm out of it. Their almost ten-minute duel brought them across the length of the ship until, finally, he managed to snake in a blow against her knee.

Exhausted, Mia sank to the floor, letting out a massive sigh as she caught her breath. Ike sat beside her, laughing slightly - the girl turning her head to look at him.

“Best of seven?” He asked, teasingly. Mia gasped, mock-offended, and punched him in the arm.

“You jerk, boss.” She pouted, turning away. She couldn’t keep it up, however, and soon the two were laughing, Mia running a hand through purple hair.

“Maybe later.” She said eventually. “You’re good, Boss. Your dad taught you, right?”

“Yeah. Some style he came up with himself.” He shrugged, passing her a waterskin. Mia accepted gratefully, gulping some down greedily - wiping away some of the water that splashed over her chin with the back of her hand. “Who taught you?”

“A dojo in my second village.” She replied, distantly. “My parents and I had to leave our first one after a bandit attack. When we got there, I never wanted to be helpless again. I’d always loved pretending to fight, anyway, so I went and got them to teach me how to do it properly. I was the only woman learning there.”

Ike hadn’t heard much about Mia’s past, other than the fact that she was a mercenary even before joining his father’s group by sheer chance. She continued, staring off at the rising sun with a small smile on her face. “It was fun. I beat up so many guys - they didn’t take me seriously at the start, not like you did, so it was pretty easy for the first few months. Eventually, though, my teacher just got too old to keep doing it properly - so he suggested I go out and get some real life experience, and here I am. Got hired by Crimea to fight in the war after everything went south, got captured by Daein, and your father busted me out. He…”

Mia hesitated. This was a delicate topic, and like she’d told him before - she never quite knew what to say at times like these. “…seemed nice.”

“Yeah.” Ike said quietly, the two watching the sunrise. Mia passed the waterskin back, and he sipped at it carefully before putting it away. “He was.”

The quiet turned awkward until Mia finally groaned, hanging her head back. “Augh, this sucks. I came up here to fight, not…you know…talk about feelings and stuff. I’m no good at that, Boss.”

“If you want beaten another time, you should have just said so.” Ike laughed at the sudden change in mood, standing up and offering Mia a hand. After a long second Mia took it, grasping his wrist and letting him pull her to her feet. “Just promise you’ll go see Rhys after, okay? Your shoulder seems a bit beat up.”

“Oh, please. It’s just a bit of a handicap.” Mia waved him off, even though her sword arm did feel a little strained. “If I beat you like this, well. That’ll be embarrassing, huh?”

Ike just laughed again, feeling lighter than he’d felt in a while as the two walked back to the center of the deck, getting ready. “We’ve not got long, you know. Everyone else has to wake up eventually.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Mia shrugged, bouncing on the heels of her feet. “Guess we’ll just have to do it tomorrow as well, huh?”

Ike’s response came a lot faster and easier than, looking back, either of them really expected it to.

“I’d like that. Ready?”

Mia just beamed, pulling her training sword back up in front of her and staring at him defiantly, shifting back into the same stance she’d used in their first bout. Maybe he’d be tired enough for the blitz tactic to work on him this time.

“Hah! I’m always ready, boss! Here I come!”


End file.
